"Are you sure we're on the right track?" I asked a little impatiently, and a little worried that he might finally be turning on me. "Not to be rude or anything, but I'm itching to fight the guys at the Hive portal we're gonna manipulate."

My ghost, Celeste, sighs in response. "No, we're not there yet. Mars is quite far away at the moment due to the time we left, and we can't afford to get spotted by the guardians." She says in response, turning to look at me. "Are you absolutely sure though? I mean, not to offend but…"

I nodded. "I'm sure, buddy. Once we activate the portal, I can manipulate it to send m- us somewhere better. Maybe the home planet of those fuckers, and then maybe the Tower will crown me a bloody god. Not that I give half a shit."

"Y'know, it still surprises me even." My ghost points out. "How even Shaxx considers you too rough."

"It ain't my fault he was so easy." I sneered. "It's his fault for not getting off the couch to actually fight instead of watch REAL warriors." I then flexed my biceps to prove my point.

Celeste rolled her eye. "Yes, your titan muscles are titan muscles, and Osiris is still in the Infinite Forest being the Infinite Hermit."

"Not even a hermit." I said callously. "Just a scared old man hiding in a Forest, claiming to be fighting a 'truly terrible foe' that moves at walking speeds and can blink…"

"Blink across whole star systems…" She then sighed. "Honestly, you're such a child."

A beeping caught our attention, signifying that we arrived to Mars. My smirk was then replaced with a cold, hard stare. I put on my Insurmountable Skullfort and entered the ship's armory, that of which was a small, cramped room with very little space beyond my armor and weapons.

I put on the hardcase armor set, armor shaded in a noble red of which I had long familiarized myself with, and taken what few weapons I wanted out of a weapons locker, those being Breakneck, Shock and Awe, and Boltcaster.

She then moved to my side. "That all you want? I can set the remaining ones in-"

"Nope." I replied with an almost forced grin, cocking my head to the sides as to make a loud popping sound. "This is all I'm gonna need."

My ghost nodded in acknowledgement. "Understood. Transmatting in-"

"Also, I'm pretty sure you know how I want to be transmatted?"

She gave me a stare torn between annoyance and amusement. "Serious? Even with the chance of getting-"

"100% serious." I said, cracking my neck. "Their ghosts are gonna watch as I walk through the portal. Make sure there's no need for them to look for a dead man."

She sighs. "Transmatting in 3...2...1…"


It was a normal day in the Glacial Drift. Guardian forces were working hard to follow through Rasputin's Escalation Protocol in an effort to wipe out Xol's Hive, or to gain Rasputin's favor and obtain one of his many powerful Ikelos weapons. Cabal chatted and plotted among themselves, watching their sworn enemies do battle from afar, knowing they had no chance to cause damage to either side as they fought. An occasional guardian would come in and out of the area, giving a small wave to his fellow guardians in arms, while completely ignoring the Cabal.

And then I came in and slammed down in the midst of it all, annihilating the guardians alongside a few unlucky Hive. This caused the hordes of hive to stop and stare at me for a few moments in confusion.

I gave them a friendly wave. "Thank me later for swatting these flies of yours." Was all I said, before I popped out my sparrow to drive off.

Not a moment too soon, some of the guardians that had just resurrected began shooting at me, having already recognized me as a wanted man. I paid them no heed, even as some of the bullets struck me, and moved deeper into the ice, and heading into the Olympus Descent, a cavern of ice and death. I sped past some of the Hive, leaving them behind as to buy time, before jumping off my sparrow and readying my Breakneck, running through the cavern and taking a right.

I fired, mowing down the small group of unprepared acolytes, all of them turning to dust as I kept firing and reloading, moving up the small hillside to my right. Hive knights with blaster guns quickly began firing at me, and I dodged their slow moving shots with ease, before swapping to Shock and Awe and rushing up a hill, charging up the weapon all the while. I then shot a stream of arc blasts into one of the knights, its shield overloading and releasing an arc wave, which overloaded its ally's shield. The hive knight then disintegrated from the arc, the remaining hive knight looking weakened. I clocked it in the face, before heading into the Penumbral Depths, a hive barrier forming behind me just as I made it in.

I continued making my way through uninterrupted, the hive apparently trying to make barrier after barrier in an attempt to stop me, but were unable to as I kept rushing through the areas in a matter of seconds, barreling down the hive that got in my way with my shoulder and grenades, leaving little to none in my wake.

It wasn't long until I reached the hole leading inactive hive portal. I jumped down the area around me being empty. Six arches stood before me, a hive ritual plate in between.

"Celeste." I said aloud.

Celeste decloaked as the Boltcaster dropped into my right hand. I crouched down, and cut my free hand with the shard, a grunt escaping me as I stained the shard with my blood. I then held the shard in a striking position, before jamming it into the plate. The hive plate glowed with its intense green hive magic, before the portal opened up for me.

"I have to say it before we enter," Celeste said as she looked to me. "I didn't expect things to go so well. You'd think the hive would've anticipated us."

"The hive are also conditioned to think we'd kill every single one of them before moving on." I said in response, as I stood up. "This is just a perk of our situation… as much as I hate to leave punching bags behind."

"Eh, I suppose it's true in light of that." She said in response. We both then stared at the portal for a moment, before she looked at me. "Are we going? Because I don't think we should wait for those guys to catch up."

I stayed silent in hesitation of what I was about to do.

"Guardian?"

"I'm sorry..." I let out, as I grabbed her with my left. She let out a yelp of surprise.

"Guardian, what are you doing?!"

"I don't deserve this Celeste." I said as I moved back to the hole I jumped through. "I don't deserve you."

"So you're leaving me behind in a hive breeding ground?!" She then tried to escape my grasp, thinking my intentions were something else.

"Celeste, why do you think I really disturbed those guardians? When I could've just got a move on?"

She went silent, taking it in. Her blue eye stared at me in shock.

"If I keep you with me, you're gonna end up like Sundance. Like Cayde." I stated as a matter of fact, holding back emotions as I explained it to her. "I can't bear it in good conscience to think that something like that might happen again to you… so I'm doing something else."

"Guardian… I understand that it could happen." She said after a short moment of silence. "But it can't happen to us. You can make it through anything."

"Exactly." I said, using my bloodied hand to take off my helmet. I then gave her a smile. "I can make it through anything. But not you."

I heard the guardians off in the distance firing rockets and using supers at the hive, an ogre's unholy battle cry letting itself be known as it fired its laser beams at the guardians. I looked back to the hole.

"We're out of time."

I then threw her up into the hole, her crying out for me as she was sent flying deep within. I ran to the portal without looking back. The world went black around me, as the hive portal taken me away, directed only by a single thought of mine.

Bring me to a realm rife with violence.


When the hive magic finally rid itself of me, I found myself standing on a cliffside at… Earth?

What. Was all I could think of, raising an eyebrow in response to my situation. I looked down below, spotting a village and a few mansions, all surrounded by lush green forests. There was hardly any fallen or hive activity that I could see. Confused as to my current situation, I walked up to the edge of the cliffside, looking around once more. A forest was below me, seemingly inactive.

Maybe it's just an error? That warlock's journal isn't really easy to read…

Shrugging, I looked around for a place that would promote punching. I saw a blood red lake... in the middle of the day… no blood red moon.

I jumped with a smile, arc covering my being as I flew. Found a place.


Kurumi was awoken from her slumber by the sound of electricity off in the distance. Opening her eyes in confusion, she looked to the source of the noise… only to meet an arc powered fist going into her face.

"Uwa?!" She cried out, getting sent flying back as a result. She quickly utilized her magic to start flying, levitating in the air as she looked at her armored opponent, who held… his? Hers? Arms out to the side in a goading gesture.

She could feel the grin on the armored figure's face as the person spoke. "So you slaughtered all these innocent people, creature of darkness!"

She cupped the spot she was hit at with a hand, feeling the burn from the electricity that hit her. "I'm sorry, wha-"

She was then cut off by the same being suddenly charging straight at her again, arc fist poised to attack. She barely managed to avoid the attack, as the being sped past her like a bullet, falling back to the ground and causing the earth below the figure to visibly shake and crack, displacing some dirt even.

The figure then stood up and spoke again. "Come now. Give me a challenge! Resist your judgement or whatever guardians say!" The being goaded again.

"Hey, you got it all wrong! I'm just a-" She was cut off by the figure going at her again. She tried to dodge, but it proved fruitless even as she raised the circle to block, as the being predicted where she was going. The sheer force of the attack broke her barrier and punched her in the gut, cracking her ribs. She fell to the ground, groaning in agony.

The person walked up to her, continuing to urge her to attack. "Hey come on! You can't be done now, right?!"

Fuck it, just let Elly deal with this. She then pretended to go unconscious, in hopes it'd leave the place altogether.

"Hey, get up already ya mass murdering arse!" The person tried to force a confrontation again, almost with a pleading tone to it. When she didn't respond, she heard a sigh. "I thought this place had people to fight, not the same shit different place!" She then heard the person walk off, and after a moment passes, she gets up to watch the figure leave the gate to the lake, heading off to the Forest Of Magic.

She then turns around, clutching her chest as she went to get Elly. She wasn't guarding again until she recovered from the surprise attack… and maybe after Reimu deals with that brawler.


I was annoyed to say the least, but not surprised. I didn't know how to use the shard after all, and that 'a place rife with violence' could mean basically anywhere in retrospect. It didn't make me any less annoyed that the fights here were weak though, and I had once more resumed the search for strong people to fight.

I quickly came across hive-like humans. Not remotely close looking to the Hive, but resembled their early stages when they were but moth people. I'd know so due to that Toland dude being obsessed about them, took his journal to try and understand, but it was too wordy. They considered me a danger and avoided, not that I blamed the small things. Real titans were strong and dangerous. And incredibly muscular. So why wouldn't they be afraid?

I shrugged while walking through the quite boorish forest. Sure there were large mushroom things that shot up big scary lookin' spores into the air, and some of the flies were rather unfriendly towards me, but all in all? It was like a budget-cut Dreadnaught combined with a knock-off Dreaming City to me. As well as a taken-less one.

That actually reminds me. Where are the light hunting bastards? I thought as I looked around in curiosity.

Thump.

I spun on my heel after having felt the ground shake, looking in the direction of where the sound came.

Thump.

Something big was nearby, an ogre? Gate lord? Whatever it is, it needed to be punched before it could cause any destruction.

I smiled as I cracked my knuckles. "You ready for this Celeste?"

No response.

I looked around for my ghost, only to remember what happened. I frowned for a moment at the sudden reminder, before shaking my head.

The only way to improve is to move on.

I leapt into the air once more, seeing a giant of a human with swords the size of only the strongest of Hive. My fist shook with excitement at the beast before me, and arc covered my being.

I flew.


Alice Margatroid's day was rather boorish to say the least, but at least it was productive. Marisa had gone out with Reimu to solve an incident that was happening, and the fairies of light had since left her home, having found themselves able to keep on their own feet for a change. Since then, it had been quite lonely at her home, especially without her neighbor. So she had taken to working on the Goliath Doll to pass the time.

The Goliath Doll was about the same as usual. Big 3-story tall swords that fired lasers in huge, arcing sweeps, being able to move about at its usual slow, clunky speeds. But it had become adaptable to smaller targets at least, and would use its body to try and run over the foe. It was an improvement at the-

She heard a yell coming from her left, as did the Goliath Doll. She turned to look at the source to find a ball of incredibly bright lightning rushing at her Goliath Doll, hitting it in the face. It stumbled back a few steps, before falling into her house, ruining her day just like that. The light from the blue ball disappeared, revealing an armored figure that had charged at it.

She was gobsmacked at the sight. One of her strongest dolls, sent stumbling onto her home… because of a mere brute!?

"Don't worry miss!" The figure announced in a practiced, faked but slightly genuine heroic tone, as the figure entered a combat position. "I will stop this monster from-"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE DOING?!" She screeched at the armored figure, causing it to stop and look at her.

"...Fighting a monster?" The stranger said, genuinely confused. "Was that not trying to destroy your house?"

"You caused it to destroy my house meathead!" She said while pointing at him. "Do you not even bother to check what's going on before attacking?!"

"Yes."

"Then prepare to die!"

"Ok!" The figure said, turning back to the Goliath Doll. The figure then turned to her again. "Wait, you wanna fight me?"

Her eyebrow twitched. "Do I look like a human to you?!"

"Yes." The armored figure then pointed at her as she sputtered, trying to formulate a response to this madman. "Where's your weapon by the way? Are you secretly a warlock? They love wearing dresses, especially that nipple chained one; I think that was called Heart Of Praxic Flames, it was a big sacred robe of theirs..."

"...Oh man, this day had changed so drastically." She held her head to ease the already incoming migraine, and decided to take a seat on a chair that was fortunately left standing. "All I did was try to work on my doll… and then you come in and ruin everything!"

The figure stared at her for a moment.

Then looked back to the Goliath.

Then back to her. "Can I fight it?"

"Just don't destroy it." She said, as she willed the Goliath Doll to fight. It stood up, swords at the ready.

"OK!" The figure said with a chirp, and rushed to fight the doll, who already tried to slam a sword into the figure. The figure side-stepped the attack, but didn't expect the energy wave from the sword to shoot out lasers at him, and took it at point blank range. While the majority of lasers hit, a few did, penetrating the armor and hitting him in many vital points of the body. She thought it was it then.

To her surprise though, the armored figure laughed jovially. "A REAL CHALLENGER!" He shouted, as he pulled out a handle of a sword from his hip and unleashing his own sword, jumping on top of the sword while both her and the Goliath Doll were distracted.

The Goliath Doll tried to scrape him off using its other sword, but he merely jumped over it, hanging from the sword by a threat as he barely caught onto it again. He jumped off, rushing to slash the Goliath Doll in the face, and causing a minor cut to its overall frame. Alice immediately noticed this, and not wanting to have some of her life's work destroyed, immediately pulled the Goliath Doll out of the battle with the strings she had connected to it, putting it by her side.

"I JUST SAID NOT TO DESTROY IT!" She shouted, as the figure stared at her. "It was bad enough that you used my work to destroy my house, but now you want to destroy my doll?!"

The figure was genuinely confused. "I wasn't destroying it, I'm just fighting it!"

Her right eye twitched. She summoned the rest of her dolls, who were thankfully alive in the rubble. A whole, angry horde of them had lined up in front of her. "Leave."

"Jeeze, guy can't get a fight around here…" The armored figure muttered to himself, deciding to respect her wishes instead of fighting. "Where's all the fighting?"


Yukari scans the cliffside, looking for Genskoyo's interloper. Normally she'd respond immediately, but at the same time she sensed it, the 'guardian' had released Flandere and escaped, drawing her attention away for a few moments as she stayed to re-contain Flandre, listen, and find him. Much to hers, and Remilia's dismay, both the guardian and interloper had escaped.

She sighs, sits down on the cliff, staring at all of Gensokyo. She then smiles. "Well, it's not as if something️ bad could happen from this, right? A little chaos now and then doesn't hurt, and they don't know danmaku… I'd highly doubt that warlock I got wouldn't immediately try to kill the Youkai, which would land him in hot water."

"Oh, one of them robed dudes showed up?"

She turned to look at the newcomer. "Ah, Kalmin. Yes, we do have some issues regarding your kind here. One had entered Gensokyo of their own volition, while the other I had teleported in, but was set on escaping to live his own life. Former had destroyed Alice Margatroid's house thinking her Goliath Doll was an enemy." She then put her fan in front of her mouth. "Since you are an excellent tracker, we thought you could locate the interloper while I deal with that warlock."

"Wouldn't they be traveling together, though?" Kalmin pointed out, as he walked up to her side. "They'd be a bit of a pain if we just took them on ourselves. Trust me when I say you should never underestimate a guardian."

"You've still yet to prove that to us." She said with a bit of a giggle. "I'll go around the Forest of Magic. Perhaps he'd still be there, it is our most dangerous area after all."

Kalmin hummed in thought, as he looked over Gensokyo. His eyes settled on the mountain ahead of them. "Youkai Mountain. He'd probably be dead unless Momiji got to him, yeah, but he wouldn't be in the human village of all places. That's a vantage point he would get behind first."

"Then," Yukari said, as she opened up a pair of portals for themselves. "It's time for the hunt to begin."


TheRealCactoos:Which timeline is it for both?

I'm not really sure where it is. Touhou itself doesn't seem to have a clear timeline for the most part, despite having such in the wiki. Plus its lore sometimes goes from child friendly in its various manga and games, to 'wtf' did I just read? (Bit of a spoiler on Wild and Horned Hermit btw for you Touhou fans in the next chapter btw).

It definitely isn't pre-EoSD though. Even after the events, Flandre still seems at large trapped there, so she is going to remain trapped there. I think we might be on 10 if anything.

Guest:Warlocks can fly, and light and darkness aren't bound by science.

Explain the warlock's stormcaller quest in the The Taken King then, as it requires you to find a Vex mind core to use as a conductor for Arc Light.

Also the warlocks cannot fly, and if they even if they can, not forever. I know Ikora kinda does it(it's more accurately hovering in the air), but she's a Vanguard Discipline, which means she's one of the strongest warlocks. Flying meanwhile, is innate to pretty much everyone in Touhou.

With that final character done, I will see you guys next week with another chapter!